Private jets line up at Logan as Romney backers arrive

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Private jets were streaming into Boston’s Logan International Airport Tuesday afternoon, officials said, as Mitt Romney’s well-heeled supporters arrived for his post-election party in the Seaport District.

Edward Freni, director of aviation for Logan, said an unusually large number of Gulfstream corporate jets were looking to park at the airport by late afternoon on election day. Logan had accommodated 80 of them by 4:30 p.m., roughly double the 40 to 50 it sees on a typical day, he said.

Freni said the staff was trying to “shoehorn these planes in,” making room for them to park after filling up the usual spaces for about 60 of the luxury, long-range 12-seaters. Once they hit 85, he said, any other arrivals will have to drop off their passengers and head to Hanscom Field in Bedford.

Freni compared the traffic to what he sees on busy college graduation weekends in Boston or for the Ryder Cup golf tournament in Brookline in 1999.

The Romney campaign was planning a special reception Tuesday night at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the Republican candidate’s biggest financial backers. These members of Romney’s national finance committee are invited to gather in the “Green Room” before the speaking portion of the rally in the grand ballroom, according to a person invited to the event.